“Please do not underestimate the mountain roads,” it says. “Do not follow your GPS.” “BE SURE TO BELIEVE THE SPEED MARKINGS AT THE CURVES!” The road to the Yellow Pine Music and Harmonica Festival is not for the faint of heart. These warnings appear all over the driving directions on the festival’s website. I considered attending last year’s festival, when I was a newbie to Idaho, but chickened out after reading this. After living in the flat lands of Louisiana, and driving through the hills of Ohio, I had reservations.
Another year passed and driving a Subaru Outback (the standard Boise, Idaho car it appears) instead of a minivan, I felt confident enough this time to take the risk. Plus, a friend was enticing me to come and it would mean killing two birds with one stone; listening to some good harmonica music, and visiting a proposed open-pit mine that stands to upset the mining cart so to speak of natural sound in the area, at least for the short term.
Located way off the beaten path, Yellow Pine had a full time winter population last year of 25 residents. To town swelled to over 1,800 during the four-day festival. It sits two hours east of Cascade in the West Central Mountains of Idaho. For the intrepid but determined traveler, there are three ways to join the weekend party. I chose route one, a snaking rollercoaster of a road complete with two 12-percent grades, a left turn at one of those places that looks like a town on a map but is only an intersection, and a 25-mile bone-dry washboard gravel section that leads straight into town, and not a mile too soon. My Subaru and me hugged craggy, avalanche-prone hillsides, risking a scratch instead of taking a dive into the fast flowing creeks down below. Unfortunately, I ate dust kicked up from every vehicle ahead of me. Next time I’ll be first on the road to the festival. Lesson learned.
Arriving at Yellow Pine was a relief. My weekend beneath the pines (they’re green, not yellow by the way) had begun. After finding what I thought was going to be a relatively quiet spot to car camp, where I wouldn’t get blocked in and within walking distance to the festival, made it up to the Midas Gold tent.
Why this tent? Midas Gold wants to conduct an open-pit mining operation in the mining town of Stibnite east of Yellow Pine, digging for; you guessed it, gold, plus other metals too. My idea is to conduct a long-term sound survey at the site, to get a sense of the soundscape before, during and after operations. The Canadian-based company has been active in the area for years, seeking permits, drilling core samples and installing monitoring wells to go after metal that was before unobtainable with mining techniques of old. Their PR campaign is top-notch. They portray themselves as an environmentally-conscience mining operation, an oxymoron perhaps. Midas Gold claims they will leave the site after mining operations conclude in better shape than it is today. Even so it remains to be seen, and heard.
Midas Gold has their supporters, and stands to make a sizable amount of money on their considerable investment. They also have opposition, like the Nez Perce tribe, who also had a booth at the festival. The tribe claims the proposed mining area as their aboriginal territory. The two groups were seperated by, coincidentally enough, the US Forest Service’s booth. The Forest Service handed out Smokey Bear key rings. Nice. The tribe gets points for handing out harmonicas. Even better. Midas Gold conducted tours of their proposed site. I had arranged to be on one.
Stibnite was a hopping place during World War II. Home to thousands of miners taking antimony and tungsten out of the ground. Tungsten is an alloy that hardens steel. Antimony hardens lead. Think tanks and bullets. Antimony currently plays a critical role in producing lead-acid batteries. Think hybrid car batteries.
I came to do a little recon on the mining site, plus listen to and play a little harmonica. I play tremolo harmonicas. If this festival were in Ireland or Japan, I’d fit right in, but in Yellow Pine, I had the only tremolos around.
I can’t share all the music I recorded at the festival due to copyright restrictions. I have included links to musician’s websites in the photo captions. Please have a look and listen to what these fine musicians have to offer. My favorite act was The Moody Jews of Boise, a klezmer band my wife and I have wanted to hear for a while. They have nothing to do with harmonica music but no matter. The band allowed me record their set inside the Yellow Pine Tavern. It’s an old log cabin structure with a long bar and a selection of former patron’s cowboy hats nailed to the ceiling.
Listen to The Moody Jews of Boise perform their song Ale Brieder with a little help from the audience singing “Oy, Yoy Yoy.”
Taggart Lewis, with the Moody Jews of Boise, performs inside the Yellow Pine Tavern during the 30th annual Yellow Pine Music and Harmonica Festival in Yellow Pine, Idaho on Saturday, August 3, 2019. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon Oliver Thompson, with the Moody Jews of Boise, performs inside the Yellow Pine Tavern during the 30th annual Yellow Pine Music Festival in Yellow Pine, Idaho on Saturday, August 3, 2019. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Attending the festival was worth the drive in my book. I saw more stars in the sky than I’ve seen in a long time, made new friends and didn’t bottom out my car. If you find yourself in the middle of Idaho’s West Central Mountains next July, grab your harmonica, and start making music among the pines.
Further reading:
- The Yellow Pine Times provides a great source of interesting historical photographs and information.
- Look here to see Midas Gold’s timeline for the Stibnite Gold Project.
- The Nez Perce Tribe has been outspoken against the project. Here is their webpage detailing their concerns.
- Idaho Rivers is another group against the project. Look here to view their website.
